Seòmar agus comataidhean

Beavers have the potential to bring significant biodiversity benefits to Scotland. They may also have adverse impacts on some land uses. Our main policy focus at this point is to prevent and mitigate negative impacts of beavers before damage can occur.

NatureScot can issue protected species licences to control beavers for the purpose of preventing serious damage to agriculture.

NatureScot also support land and fisheries managers experiencing negative impacts through the Scottish Beaver Mitigation Scheme. The Scheme offers land managers advice and practical assistance with mitigating the impacts of beavers including taking pro-active measures to prevent impacts where appropriate. NatureScot will continue to work with stakeholders on the mitigation scheme looking to develop new and innovative approaches.

Increased use of translocation of beavers will also help prevent negative impacts and as set out in the answer to question S6W-04596 on 24 November 2021, we will also provide both financial and practical support to facilitate this translocation of beavers.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government do not provide compensation to potato farmers who have been ordered by SASA to destroy their crops to prevent further growth.

Article 4 of The Plant Health (Potatoes) (Scotland) Order 2006 provides an explicit power to require that the grower of a potato crop (seed or ware) takes immediate action (within 72 hours of the service of a notice) to ensure the destruction of the haulm of a potato crop which has been determined by official inspection to present a clear plant health risk to other potato crops due to high levels of virus in the crop.

There is no single definition of a GMO for the agricultural context. Different definitions for GMOs exist in different regulatory regimes, including:

• in relation to deliberate release: section 106 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990,
• in relation to contained use: regulation 2 of the Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations 2014,
• in relation to food and feed: article 2 of the retained EU Regulation (EC) 1829/2003.

While there is no legal definition of gene editing in Scotland, we recognise that gene editing is typically used to refer to a precise and targeted form of genetic modification. Gene edited organisms are legally considered GMOs.

We announced the new capital budget of £11.7 million for coastal change adaptation in the 2020 Programme for Government. Scottish Ministers and COSLA agreed a methodology to distribute the new budget to coastal local authorities based on evidence from Dynamic Coast which identifies assets most at risk from erosion ( https://www.dynamiccoast.com/ ). The budget covers the four-year period from 2022-23 until 2025-26, split as follows:

2022-23 - £1.6 million

2023-24 - £2.6 million

2024-25 - £2.7 million

2025-26 - £5.0 million

Total - £11.7 million

The distribution for 2022-23 and intended distribution for 2023-24 are as follows:

SEPA allocated approximately £30.1m of its £88.6m spend in 2021/22 to managing river catchments. This funded work to protect and improve the water environment including permitting, regulating activities, monitoring water environment and producing River Basin Management Plans.

SEPA administered total grant values of £2.353m from the Water Environment Fund to third parties to deliver river restoration and fish barrier removal works. Approximately £0.75m was allocated to regulatory activities as part of SEPA’s diffuse pollution priority catchment work. These include SEPA’s overhead costs. They do not include SEPA work on flood warning and flood risk management.

The independent Scottish Environmental Protection Agency lead and coordinate strategic flood risk management planning, provide advice and guidance to planning authorities, and are the flood forecasting and warning authority for Scotland.

SEPA monitors water levels and rainfall in two of the headwaters above Hawick (Slitrig and Teviot) to provide the community with a Flood Warning Service.This information is available for everyone on SEPA’s website.

SEPA work closely with the local planning authority to provide advice on flood risk and respond to flood events at all stages prior to, during and after flooding.

SEPA Water Levels

Scottish Rainfall Data - provided by Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

The Scottish Government can order a crop haulm to be destroyed at any time during the season. The Scottish Government conducts an annual surveillance programme of testing to ensure potato crops in Scotland remain free from many economically important pests and diseases and, in partnership with the potato industry, ensure that robust measures are in place to maintain Scotland’s high-health status and world-wide reputation for producing high quality seed potatoes.

As part of our work to take forward recommendations from the Grouse Moor Management Review Group, the Scottish Government also commissioned Scotland’s Rural College and the James Hutton Institute to undertake research into the biodiversity and economic impacts of grouse moors. The research found that grouse shooting enterprises were of local importance as an employer, and to the wider community and you can read more about the findings here .

NatureScot only hold details of beavers controlled under licence since they became European Protected Species in May 2019.

The data from 2019 and 2020 licence returns is available on the NatureScot website at

https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-beaver-licensing-summary-1st-may-31st-december-2019

https://www.nature.scot/doc/beaver-management-report-2020

NatureScot are currently collating beaver licence returns for 2021 and plan to publish this information by May 2022.

The decline in capercaillie numbers is of real concern, NatureScot recently published a Review of Capercaillie Conservation and Management - Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee | NatureScot

The report found, inter alia, that it is likely that “ reductions in the numbers of predators (foxes, pine martens, crows) would rapidly improve the breeding success of Capercaillie” . However the evidence is unclear as to whether reductions of fox populations alone would benefit capercaillie without management of other predator species due to the interactions between predator species.

NatureScot are working closely with the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project to support capercaillie conservation in Scotland, and have recently published an outline of the measures, beyond those which are already being undertaken, that are being considered to save capercaillie. These include:

• Carefully designed and monitored diversionary feeding of predators, currently being investigated, being expanded to provide alternative food during the breeding season.
• Additional predator control to remove crows, foxes and including pine martens. In the case of pine marten this would be non-lethal, through trap and release as part of reintroduction to other parts of the UK.
• Seasonal visitor management to create larger refuges from human disturbance in collaboration with communities.
• Extend deer fence marking and removal.